Hippocrates has been famously quoted as saying "Let your medicine be your food your food your medicine" This saying has been disputed as being a misquote. But if we want to examine the saying of a great philosopher, it will be useful to examine it in greater details for facts or lack thereof.
Needless to say that food is actually medicine in a manner of speaking. We must go back to the basics and ask the following questions
i. Where do we get energy from?
ii. Where do we get immune boosters from?
iii. Where do vitamins come from?
If the general answer to these question is "food", then we are beginning to see what we put in our mouths as the means of staying healthy, and in some cases, not staying healthy. We must first agree that food could be medicine or poison, depending on what we chew, drink or smoke. Let us face facts, some of the things we eat could be dangerous to our health. While this is a well known fact, not a lot of people are mindful of what go into their gut. Let us take the case of eating that leads to improper digestion, like eating too much meat products. Don't get me wrong, I do eat meat; but when I eat too much of it, it simply stays there for days, making me to feel sluggish and uncomfortable. This is especially so when the meat is well cooked. Also, if you drink too much alcohol, you are likely to have a hangover the following day, after a night which feels like you are riding on the high seas instead of sleeping peacefully on your bed.
In this series, I will discuss briefly about some food materials which may be found on kitchen shelves all over the world, but which also double as very potent medicine. Not only by the definitions above, which may lean toward prevention of the body against diseases, but the fact that they could actually prevent and cure diseases.
I. Turmeric (Scientific name: Curcuma longa)
This plant is a relative of ginger. It also grows as a rhizome, a kind of underground stem. The rhizomes are somewhat smaller than ginger and have a golden yellow coloring, due to the yellow pigment called curcumin. It is a widely used spice, and constitutes a major part of curry powder. It is eaten in many other forms. The amount taken in depends on whether you are using it as food or as medicine.
It is consume either fresh or powdered. It is even made into tablets by manufacturers of nutritional supplements. However, it has been used as medicine in many parts of the world for centuries. I do have a personal experience of its medicinal use ever before I came to know is as a spice in foods. In Africa, it is used to cure malaria in a very delicious way. Remember, no one likes to take medicines, especially bitter ones, the reason children's medicine are sweetened to increase palatability. The use of turmeric for malaria in this context is a standard way of "making medicine into food", or "food into medicine" depending on the way you look at it. It is merely made into a stew by grinding the fresh "roots" into a pulp and cooking with other spices, including pepper, palm oil and salt. It is made very tasty by cooking it with raw beef cut into small pieces. The sick person usually needs very little persuasion to eat this soup.
It has also been recommended for lowering cholesterol. It is obvious that curcumin, which is the golden yellow pigment abundant in this spice, is very useful as an anti-oxidant. It has also been mentioned as an anti-cancer agent. One other common use is the reduction of inflammation, as well as the relieve of arthritis. Turmeric definitely has very strong medicinal values. However, it is a practical fact that it needs to be eaten in larger quantities than when it is used as food to be effective as medicine. So, while it is true that your food could be your medicine, and your medicine your food, you may want to decide, in case of turmeric, whether you intend is as food or as medicine.
We will follow up with other "Kitchen Medicines" in subsequent discussions.
Needless to say that food is actually medicine in a manner of speaking. We must go back to the basics and ask the following questions
i. Where do we get energy from?
ii. Where do we get immune boosters from?
iii. Where do vitamins come from?
If the general answer to these question is "food", then we are beginning to see what we put in our mouths as the means of staying healthy, and in some cases, not staying healthy. We must first agree that food could be medicine or poison, depending on what we chew, drink or smoke. Let us face facts, some of the things we eat could be dangerous to our health. While this is a well known fact, not a lot of people are mindful of what go into their gut. Let us take the case of eating that leads to improper digestion, like eating too much meat products. Don't get me wrong, I do eat meat; but when I eat too much of it, it simply stays there for days, making me to feel sluggish and uncomfortable. This is especially so when the meat is well cooked. Also, if you drink too much alcohol, you are likely to have a hangover the following day, after a night which feels like you are riding on the high seas instead of sleeping peacefully on your bed.
In this series, I will discuss briefly about some food materials which may be found on kitchen shelves all over the world, but which also double as very potent medicine. Not only by the definitions above, which may lean toward prevention of the body against diseases, but the fact that they could actually prevent and cure diseases.
I. Turmeric (Scientific name: Curcuma longa)
This plant is a relative of ginger. It also grows as a rhizome, a kind of underground stem. The rhizomes are somewhat smaller than ginger and have a golden yellow coloring, due to the yellow pigment called curcumin. It is a widely used spice, and constitutes a major part of curry powder. It is eaten in many other forms. The amount taken in depends on whether you are using it as food or as medicine.
It is consume either fresh or powdered. It is even made into tablets by manufacturers of nutritional supplements. However, it has been used as medicine in many parts of the world for centuries. I do have a personal experience of its medicinal use ever before I came to know is as a spice in foods. In Africa, it is used to cure malaria in a very delicious way. Remember, no one likes to take medicines, especially bitter ones, the reason children's medicine are sweetened to increase palatability. The use of turmeric for malaria in this context is a standard way of "making medicine into food", or "food into medicine" depending on the way you look at it. It is merely made into a stew by grinding the fresh "roots" into a pulp and cooking with other spices, including pepper, palm oil and salt. It is made very tasty by cooking it with raw beef cut into small pieces. The sick person usually needs very little persuasion to eat this soup.
It has also been recommended for lowering cholesterol. It is obvious that curcumin, which is the golden yellow pigment abundant in this spice, is very useful as an anti-oxidant. It has also been mentioned as an anti-cancer agent. One other common use is the reduction of inflammation, as well as the relieve of arthritis. Turmeric definitely has very strong medicinal values. However, it is a practical fact that it needs to be eaten in larger quantities than when it is used as food to be effective as medicine. So, while it is true that your food could be your medicine, and your medicine your food, you may want to decide, in case of turmeric, whether you intend is as food or as medicine.
We will follow up with other "Kitchen Medicines" in subsequent discussions.
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